Like the rest of inner city America, Bridgeport, Connecticut's 130th District has for decades been ground zero in the war on drugs.

A think-tank established by the Scottish parliament and tasked with looking at new approaches to drug policy has issued a report calling for radical changes in the way Scotland deals with the damag

Every day for 15 months, Vancouver heroin addict Rob Scott Vincent, 36, went into a nondescript building on the city's Downtown Eastside where a nurse would hand him a syringe loaded with pharmaceu

The Danish parliament Monday has given its approval for a heroin maintenance pilot project, Agence France-P

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 23, 2008
Contact Persons: Carol Sholiton, Founder/Director, E: Carol@MethadoneSupport.org; Chuck Hilger, Colonial Management Group, E: chilger2@earthlink.net

Colonial Management Group (CMG) Now offering Suboxone in all Clinics

Colonial Management Group (CMG), with 54 opiate addiction treatment centers located throughout the United States, announced that as of January 1, 2008 all of their facilities are now offering Buprenorphine (Brand name Suboxone) in addition to their Methadone Maintenance Program.

Suboxone (Buprenorphine/Naloxone) received approval by the FDA on October 8, 2002. It is state of the art medication to treat the medical condition of Opioid addiction. It is improving the quality of life for patients in recovery and giving them hope, dignity, and the ability to have a normal life again.

CMG focuses the work in their clinics on managing the disease of addiction and strive to improve their patients' quality of life. This involves implementing the most current research findings in the treatment of their patients.

Vietnam has generally appeared in these pages in recent months because of its penchant for using

The Israeli city of Tel Aviv is moving to establish a pilot heroin maintenance program for older addicts who have proven resistant to recovery.

Indiana's methadone clinics and their clients are the target of close scrutiny by the state House of Representatives.

The British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has criticized the Labor government's ongoing consultation on

Initial results from a pilot heroin maintenance program in London, Brighton, and Darlington suggest it has reduced drug use and crime, researchers said over the weekend.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 16, 2007
CONTACT: Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director, t: 212-595-6262, E: ediretor@methadone.org or Roxanne Baker, President, T: 212-595-6262, E: president@methadone.org

FOX Philadelphia News Story Stigmatizes Patients Receiving Methadone Treatment

The FOX Philadelphia news story that aired on November 13, 2007 regarding the illegal sales of methadone in Camden, NJ is disappointing. Once again the news media is airing negative sensational stories about methadone and ignoring the thousands of positive ones. The vast majority of patients in the nation’s methadone treatment programs are not criminals. The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA) urges you to appreciate that the great majority of patients receive their methadone from licensed accredited programs, are responsible in handling their medication, compliant with their treatment plans (including abstinence from illicit substances) and live lives that are virtually indistinguishable from your own.

Methadone has provided a bridge to sustained recovery from chronic opiate addiction for hundreds of thousands of others during its forty-year history. This bridge has allowed us to leave the instability and chaos of active addiction in the past and to seek out challenges as professionals, business people, artists, students, family members and taxpayers. However, due to continued negative portrayal of methadone treatment in the media such as the Fox broadcast there is a tendency for the public to form distorted images of methadone patients. There are thousands of compliant patients who are grateful for methadone treatment and eager to see it accurately reported by the media but remain silent because they have families and other responsibilities to consider. They are well aware of the stigma and prejudice that methadone patients experience daily and are afraid that the sensationalized media such as a Fox Philadelphia story could harm their family and career. The media never acknowledges the successes because it is not exciting. Consequently, the negative perception goes unchallenged and it makes it that much more difficult for those of us who benefit from methadone treatment to present the true picture.

Since its’ beginning over 40 years ago methadone maintenance has been the most effective treatment for narcotic addiction. In spite of its success, methadone maintenance is often disparaged as a "substitute drug" by those who ignore the positive benefits that it has clearly brought to society. Such attitudes negatively impact on methadone treatment in a variety of ways, but it is the methadone patients themselves who are particularly stigmatized and harmed. Patients are mistreated and misinformed and considered as social outcasts. They are victims of discrimination in health care, the job market, education, insurance and housing. The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA) was organized as a formal mechanism for methadone patients to voice their own needs and to form a strong, unified public presence on their behalf. The primary objective of NAMA is to advocate for the patient in treatment by destigmatizing and empowering methadone patients. First and foremost, it can confront the negative stereotypes that impact on the self-esteem and worth of many methadone patients with a powerful affirmation of pride and unity.

Website: http://www.methadone.org

German state governments are pressing the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to open the way to providing free heroin for hard-core addicts throughout the country.

Phillip S. Smith, Writer/Editor

A Scottish government agency has approved the use of the heroin substitute buprenorphine as a replacement for heroin users unable to take the more common substitute methadone.

The British government is prepared to begin prescribing heroin through the National Health Service to "recidivist veteran users" after a pilot program has proven successful, according to a